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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28770714">Taste Test</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elldritch/pseuds/Elldritch'>Elldritch</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Locked Tomb Trilogy | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Also not exactly plot?, Blindfolds, F/F, Fluff, Guess I'll call it a character study?, Not exactly porn?, Sensory Deprivation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 06:02:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,431</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28770714</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elldritch/pseuds/Elldritch</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Gideon tries to help Harrow learn to tolerate new flavours.</p><p>For the prompt:</p><p>"Gideon/Harrow: food, caretaking"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gideon Nav/Harrowhark Nonagesimus</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>121</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>TLT Kink Meme</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Taste Test</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I don't understand why I have to be blindfolded. Or naked. Or in the bath. Griddle - is this a weird sex thing?"</p><p>"Nah. I mean, it can be if you like, but I was reading up on sensory deprivation and stuff, and I thought maybe you'd find it easier if you could concentrate on just the flavours, without everything else getting in the way."</p><p>Harrow was skeptical, but she was here now, and she'd completed far more arduous trials for Gideon's sake. </p><p>"Okay, what do I do?"</p><p>"When you're ready, open your mouth, and then afterwards, tell me how it tastes."</p><p> </p><ol>
<li>Lemon</li>
</ol><p> </p><p>"I thought I'd start with something familiar, to make it easier." Gideon said, and then she dripped just a single droplet of lemon juice onto Harrow's tongue. Harrow's face instantly contorted into a mass of wrinkles that made her resemble one of the cloisterites, more than she resembled someone of her own 19 years. But gradually, her expression returned to an interested neutrality and Gideon could see faint movement in her cheeks, as she rolled the flavour around her mouth, taking the time to understand it, to fully comprehend it as she'd never given herself the opportunity to before.</p><p>"Sour." she said at last. Perhaps that would have been obvious, but Harrow had likened her experience of strong flavours to plunging a hand into a bowl of water and not being able to tell, for a moment, whether it was boiling hot or freezing cold, only that it was <em> too much </em> - so 'sour' was progress. </p><p>"It makes my mouth feel dry, but I don't know why, because I'm also salivating a lot."</p><p>"Tolerable?" Gideon asked. She knew better than to ask whether Harrow liked it; there were stages to this, and liking or disliking was much further down the line. First came understanding. Then familiarity. Then, only when something was familiar enough to overcome Harrow's instinctive horror of novel flavours could she start to form an opinion.</p><p>"Another drop." Harrow requested, extending her tongue slightly. Gideon was surprised to find that it was this - not Harrow's naked, wet, body laid out before her, or the blindfold she'd consented to wearing, but the tip of her tongue, hesitantly exposed, that made Gideon's cunt clench, and she had to remind herself to focus. This was about helping Harrow, not helping herself <em> to </em> Harrow. Obligingly, she let another drop of lemon juice fall.</p><p>"It reminds me of being a child," Harrow said, after further musing, and Gideon winced, but then Harrow continued: "Crux would give me lemon water, sometimes, when I was unwell. I didn't enjoy it, but I did enjoy the feeling of being cared for - even though I knew I didn't deserve such things. I know you never liked Crux, and I can't argue with your reasoning. He was horrid to you. But he was always kind to me."</p><p>Another long, silent moment. Gideon knew that this would take time, and she was more than willing to wait. She'd waited through nine long months of death for Harrow, and she'd do it again. With that as a comparison, this could hardly be considered arduous. </p><p>Finally, Harrow concluded: "Lemon tastes like kindness, I think."</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><ol>
<li>Salt</li>
</ol><p> </p><p>When Harrow was ready to try something new, Gideon next gave her a single flake of the fanciest sea salt she'd been able to find. Again, Harrow screwed up her face, but this time it seemed far more of an emotional reaction, not a simple physical response. Gideon wondered whether she'd made a mistake - she'd researched, and decided that giving Harrow examples of the five basic components of taste - sour, salty, bitter, sweet, and savoury - would be the best foundation, before asking her to consider these building blocks transformed into more complex architecture. </p><p>"Ianthe." Harrow said, with a grimace. "Griddle, you should be grateful that you never tasted her cooking."</p><p>Harrow didn't ask for another taste, but nor did she indicate that she was ready to continue - or to stop. </p><p>Eventually: "I don't like it, and yet something about it is making me want more. Salt makes me feel lonely, and empty, and hungry. It reminds me of crying, and of my parents, and the ceremonial pool they kept. But also of you. Salt tastes like truth, and transformation."</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><ol>
<li>Sugar</li>
</ol><p> </p><p>To Gideon's surprise, Harrow smiled when given sugar, a long, sweet smile which made Gideon's heart crack.</p><p>"Sugar. Like the peppermint candies the Great Aunts used to give me."</p><p>"And you used to pass straight to me," Gideon said, visited with a sudden memory of sitting on Drearburh's cold hard pews, when she'd still been too young for her feet to reach to the floor; when they'd both been too young to hate each other yet; the hot, sticky feeling of Harrow's hand on hers, surreptitiously transferring the candy which Harrow did not require to remain silent through services, but Gideon did. Gideon felt herself smiling too.</p><p>“More?” Gideon asked. There was a long silence, and Gideon found herself unable to read Harrow’s face. Gideon had spent her life learning to read chapter and verse in the slightest quirk of Harrow’s eyebrow; even when she’d still worn the sacramental paint, Gideon had never had difficulty interpreting her expressions. </p><p>For once, though, she was at a loss.</p><p>“There’s… something else I’d like to try. In a controlled situation, without anything else going on.”</p><p>“Sure,” Gideon replied, hoping it would be something they already kept in the cupboards. “What was it?”</p><p>“You.”</p><p>Gideon searched her brain for a witty response, but there was nothing. With a single word, Harrow had effectively erased the entire concept of language from Gideon’s mind. Her only answer was a confused grunt.</p><p>“I can smell you.” Gideon flushed, glad that Harrow was blindfolded and could not see her. Gideon had only thrown on an old shirt when they’d gotten out of bed that morning, so this shouldn’t have been a surprise, but still she found herself pressing her thighs together with sudden self-consciousness. </p><p>“Griddle? Say something, please. Have I upset you?”</p><p>“No,” Gideon assured quickly. More than anything, she was just grateful to actually be presented with a question she could answer. “No, just… surprised me. That’s all.”</p><p>“We don’t have to. I’m sorry. I just… want to make you feel good; I want to be able to give you the same pleasure you give me.”</p><p>“You do! Plenty of pleasure. Buckets of it. If my heart had a dick, you’d have sucked it. Honestly! It’s fine. You don’t have to…”</p><p>“I want to.” </p><p>Gideon had touched herself many times. Countless times. And Harrow had touched her. Nothing about this should be difficult, and yet Gideon felt more shy than she ever had before. This was somehow more intimate than the first time Harrow had seen her naked, or kissed her, or slipped her slender fingers into Gideon’s cunt. </p><p>She took a deep breath, and then parted her legs. The touch of air made her newly aware of just how wet she was. Familiarity had not yet rendered her immune to Harrow's beauty; she hoped it never would. The lightest of caresses, with the tip of just a single finger, was still enough to make Gideon ache; she wanted to abandon this whole idea and carry Harrow back to bed. </p><p>“Ready?” she asked, instead. Harrow nodded, sending ripples across the surface of the water to lap gently at her breasts, her hips, as she floated. She opened her mouth. Gideon touched her finger to Harrow’s lower lip, and she was unprepared for the way Harrow raised her head, capturing Gideon’s finger to the second knuckle. </p><p>Gideon felt her breath coming heavy as Harrow’s tongue began to hesitantly explore; tracing a line over the loops and whorls of her fingertip. Gideon couldn’t still the needy rocking of her hips, as Harrow began to gently suck, and knew that Harrow would feel the movement. </p><p>Gideon couldn’t have said whether it was a minute or an hour later when Harrow parted her lips. </p><p>“I’m done,” Harrow said, reaching up to push the blindfold from her eyes. “I’m ready to get out.”</p><p>Gideon tried to quell the disappointment blooming in her chest. “It’s okay. I understand.”</p><p>“Oh Griddle,” Harrow flashed her a wicked smile, “I’m not sure you do. I want more. So much more. But I believe it will be far more <em> satisfactory </em>for us both if we take this experiment to bed.”</p><p>Gideon attempted to recover some of her swagger: “so... how’d I taste?” she asked, with an equally wicked smile.</p><p>“You taste like home.” </p>
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